June 2015: Market Lake Wildlife Management Area

Finally got a picture of a Great Blue Heron

We are in monsoon season here in southern Idaho.  It's raining almost every day.  Yesterday I wanted to visit Market Lake Wildlife Management Area before work.  Things didn't work out for that because for starters, I didn't really know how far it was and I'd never been there.  I decided I'd take my chances after work.  Problem is, at about three o'clock it started raining.

I'm not sure how I did it, but I convinced the Hot Chick to come with me to explore this new wildlife management area.  We got in the car and headed out.  Then the lightning started.  I looked to the southwest, where Market Lake is and it appeared the weather was better there than where we currently were.  I mentioned that to the Hot Chick and she suggested wishful thinking.

We meandered through the backcountry, though and found our way to Roberts, Idaho where the wildlife refuge was.  Once we got there, the rain was almost completely done.  This WMA has a central road, but most of the refuge is a walk-in type.  With the weather threatening, and several of the areas closed due to sensitive nesting areas, I didn't do much walking in.

I did walk a little at the first turnoff, though.  I walked along the road that passed through Sandy Marsh and the owls put on a great show for me.  There were about six of them flying, soaring, and swooping.  Hunting all around me.  That was neat.  Most of the pictures have a little movement blur to them.  I don't know yet how to overcome that, but I'm going to figure that out.  I need to if I wish to keep taking pictures of birds in flight.

Owl in flight

About six of them were putting on an aerial show for me

There's another one

Kept snapping pictures

They'd fly by and stare me down

Quite the spectacle

I was in awe

Enjoyed myself immensely 

I know it's alot of pictures, but it's my blog and I can do what I want

Loved when they'd stare me down

Just a few more

Two in this shot

Very cool experience

I walked about a quarter mile to some signage before I turned back.  There was also a small cemetery out there.  I didn't take photos of that this time but will in the future.  I was mainly taking pictures of birds this time.  When I got to the signs, there was a birdhouse nailed to one of them and there was a purple martin hanging out.  He seemed unconcerned by my presence.

There was also a Forster's Tern that would fly down the length of the canal and turn around and fly back.  It was flying with it's head down and every so often it would dive straight into the water in search of a fish.  That was pretty cool to witness.

There were also Ibises flying around in that area.

Purple Martin

Forster's Tern

another shot

Fishing

Really quite a cool bird

Ibises are cool

I like the silhouette shots

once more

Pretty cool shot

I started driving again and then I started seeing black-crowned night herons.  I saw them flying and saw them roosting on the ground.  They were one of the birds I had hoped to see.  I saw a bunch of them, male and female.

Black-crowned night heron in flight

Another one

Female

Male

Hey, what's that killdeer doing here?

Another male

The black-crowned night herons were a highlight of this trip.  Oh, and the owl display.  I headed down a dirt road at the boundary of the WMA and saw a great blue heron.  Every time I'd almost get in picture range it would fly off.  I followed it for half a mile or so and it came to rest on a power pole.  I'd never seen one do that before.  Finally It came to rest on the ground and I got a picture of it.  It's the picture at the beginning of this post.  It is heavily cropped because I couldn't get close enough and I don't have a big enough lens for easily spooked birds.

Great blue heron on power pole

After the heron, I kept on the dirt road and followed it into the bush.  At first it seemed like an okay road and it seemed to be headed back to the main entrance.  Before too long it became obvious that it was a dirt road that four wheel drive vehicles would be more suited for.  It was iffy for a time, but eventually it did lead right to the place I though it would.  The road was bumpy and there were wet areas that almost seemed impassible.  I got through them though.

I enjoyed my visit to Market Lake and will return again.

May 2015: Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area

Mud Lake

I enjoyed going out to Camas National Wildlife Refuge that I started looking around and discovered that there are at least 47 wildlife management refuges in Idaho, within two hours of my home.  Since birding is my new hobby, I decided to check out another one of them.  I found a website called the Idaho Birding Trail.  It has a great deal of information about wildbirds in the great state of Idaho.  One of the "blue ribbon" stops along the trail is at Mud Lake which is also just about twenty minutes from my front door.

Mud Lake was formed from the remnants of an ancient caldera in the same caldera complex that formed the Snake River Plain.  There is also a local legend that a shipment of gold from a stagecoach heist is buried deep in the mud of Mud Lake.

We are in the rainy season here in southeast Idaho, so we didn't know if we were going to have rain or clear skies.  But since we are in Idaho, we figured we'd have a bit of both.  As we drove out to the bird refuge, we encountered monsoon conditions for a few miles, but we soldiered on because the skies over Mud Lake seemed to be clear.

Having never been to the Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area before, I didn't know what to expect and only had seen signs for it in one place, so that's where we decided to go.  Turns out it's the back way.  We skirted the lake on the east side and stopped all along the way anywhere there seemed to be a spur trail or small road to the lake.  I thought it was quite beautiful, but we didn't see a whole lot of birds in the first part of the journey.

I did take a few cool pictures of the first bit, though.

Broken bulrushes on water's edge

These were right next to them

Reflection in the water at the boat dock

I have discovered that Yellowstone has spoiled me as far as wildlife viewing is concerned.  The elk, bison, deer, pronghorns, bears and other animals in Yellowstone are so acclimated to human beings that they don't flinch when we are around.  I've driven right up to many animals in Yellowstone and they never even gave me a second glance.  Not so at the Camas National Wildlife Refuge and the Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area.  They all seemed to be skittish around us.  Last year in Yellowstone, we parked about thirty feet away from a great blue heron which then stood still in the water so we could get a great picture of it.  At both of these wildlife refuges, the herons and other birds fly away as soon as you get anywhere near picture range.  They seem more wild than the Yellowstone critters.  The same goes for the big game.  At Mud Lake, yesterday, we saw a magnificent bull elk with antlers still covered in velvet.  We couldn't get within a hundred yards of him before he took off into the willows.  We weren't driving fast, we weren't making noise.  He just didn't want to be seen.  We had the same experience with a great blue heron yesterday as well.

The road skirted around the lake and passed part of the way through the steppe.  As we drove through that area, I saw something in the road and at the last minute I slammed on the brakes and backed up.  It was a rattlesnake.  I had only seen one rattlesnake in the wild before yesterday and that one was at the Teton Dam.  I backed up and took some pictures of it.  It never coiled, never tried to strike, it just wanted to get out of the way.  I told my brother about the experience and he said, "Did you kill it?"  I told him no.  I'm not much of a killer.  I tried being a hunter when I was a kid.  Didn't do so well.  I'd rather shoot things with a camera than a gun.

Deer at the Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area

Rattlesnake

Gettin' out of Dodge

The road led back to the lake and whenever we had a fork in the road, we tried to default towards the lake.  We had never been through here before and we needed a landmark to point us the right way so we could get back home without backtracking a whole lot.  We began to see more birds.  I stopped and saw a pelican and a marsh hawk, then we proceeded back around the lake and spooked four bull elk.  Once again, they were over a hundred yards away but they wanted to be farther than that from us.

Pelican

Marsh hawk

Four skittish bull elk

The road around the backside of the lake was pretty rough and I was unsure if my mini-van was up to the task.  We made it okay, but it was rocky and rough, and we'd drive for quite awhile without a photo op.

The road finally settled and we got on a much better section of it on top of a dike along a canal.  We saw a bunch of white faced ibis in this area.  We began to see a lot more water birds, which is what we came to see.  Next time, the Hot Chick and I decided we'd plan our route a little better to avoid the backside of the lake.  Either that or go in a four wheel drive pickup that would be better equipped for that kind of travel.

We also saw hundreds of Canada geese.  Most of them flew away at the sight of our car (which was not going overly fast) but one pair of geese stayed on the opposite bank of the canal in defiance of us.  Then we noticed their young.  The parents weren't going anywhere.  At that moment, we had everything in the world in common with those two geese.  Humbling.

White faced ibis in flight

Hanging out, walking like Egyptians

More ibis

The Canada goose family

We were driving out of the preserve when I noticed an elevated road that went along the shoreline.  On the one side was the lake and the other were farmers' fields.  I didn't know if the road was still part of the preserve or if it was farm access or both.  There were no signs saying it was off limits or verboten, so I took it.  I looked at a map of the preserve when I returned home and discovered that it was part of the wildlife area.  This area turned out to be the best bird watching area of the trip.  Not that we saw more birds this time (the weather wasn't great for birding) but we drove past much better habitat for waterbirds on this section of the road.

There was a truck several hundred yards in front of us on that road and they spooked the great blue heron we wanted to see.  Curse you, man in pickup!  By the time we got through this section of road, the storm had finally hit mud lake and we were beginning to see torrential rains.  Time to go.  There was one road we didn't get to go on, and I discovered when I looked at the map that it went right to the waters' edge and terminated in a picnic area.  I think that's where I'll start next time.  Have a picnic and watch the birds.  I'm still waiting to photograph the elusive great blue heron.  Anxious for that.

I think this is a grebe

Canvasback ducks

Pelicans and coots

The water was a really cool color, but you can see the sky was getting ready to cry

As we drove out of the preserve, the last bird we saw was a little killdeer.  They continue to be one of my favorite birds.  Probably because they are interesting to look at, have an interesting call and most important, it's one of the birds that I remember my dad teaching me about.  I've always loved killdeer.
The killdeer kept thinking it was going to run away, but then I'd hit the button for my autofocus and the little beep would make the killdeer stop and cock it's head in my direction.  It was surprisingly difficult to shoot because every time I'd get it in focus, the killdeer would come closer to investigate.  I did get a few good shots of it though.  Here's my favorite.
 

The killdeer

I'll come back to this wildlife refuge.  I really enjoyed the trip.  All of it.  Next time, I'll probably spend most of my time on the south side of the lake though.  That seemed to be where the best habitat was.  But then again, I'd like to see the sage grouse and pheasants.  They'd be up in the steppe with the rattlesnakes.

June 2014: Yellowstone while the Cat's away

Three of my four sons at Sheepeater Cliff

Last week, the Cat was away.  She was in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for a lunchlady convention.  Yeah, they have lunchlady conventions.  So the mice decided to play.  We went to Yellowstone.  It was my oldest son's first trip to Yellowstone in two years as he had been serving an ecclesiastical mission for our church.  Since we were being mice, it turned into a rodent day in Yellowstone.  There will be more of that later.

Stop #1:  Bear Gulch
There is road construction with delays on Highway 20.  The sign says expect delays of up to 30 minutes.  I asked my sons which they would prefer, sit in traffic for up to thirty minutes or go the scenic route through Bear Gulch and Warm River Canyon at forty-five miles an hour.  I told them we would probably get to highway 20 at about the same time whether we sat in traffic or went the scenic way.  I wanted to give them full disclosure.  They chose the scenic route.

We have taken the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway many times this year.  On any given day it adds twenty minutes or so to the drive without any stops.  This season, however with the road construction on the Ashton Hill it seems like a no-brainer to take it.

We have stopped at Mesa Falls a couple of times this year already and my oldest son said he had seen Mesa Falls many times and we didn't need to see it that day.  We decided to just take in nature.  We did stop at the bottom of Warm River Canyon to feed the fish, however.  There is a stretch of river in the bottom of the canyon where it is illegal to fish.  Turns out there are a lot of lawyer fishes and they know that.  They congregate there and wait for tourists to throw fish chow in the water.  The cool thing is, you can go and observe some really big fish in the shallows of Warm River.

Oh, and throw in the occasional osprey and it's a pretty cool thing.

Osprey over Warm River

Really big fish

Real big fish

Reel Big Fish

Real big ghoti

There's that pesky osprey again

Stop #1.5:  Eagle along the banks of the Madison River in Yellowstone
On our way into the park we saw a bald eagle on a tree.  You don't see them every day in Yellowstone, so I participated in a small traffic jam long enough to get a picture or two.

This is why I need a $13,000 lens for my camera...

Stop #2  Artist Paint Pots
I've always loved the different mud features of Yellowstone.  The main one is at Fountain Paint Pots on the southern loop.  There are a couple more by West Thumb and Lake.  Artist Paint Pots Nature Trail is between Madison Junction and Norris Geyser Basin.  I used to take this hike frequently when I was a kid in Yellowstone.  I have only taken it a few times since moving back in 2000.  In the old days there was a wide spot in the road where you could park your car and take your chances crossing the highway.  The trailhead was a floating boardwalk over a wetland for a hundred yards or so, then the trail took off through the trees.

The trail wasn't heavily used in the seventies when I was growing up but some travel guide started listing it and the foot traffic became great enough that the park service decided to be pro-active and save the wetland.  They added a parking area on the same side of the road as the feature and rerouted the trail around the wetland.  It's a third of a mile in to the thermal features, then an elevation gain of maybe eighty feet or so in a short distance.  There are steps cut into the trail so you feel like you are climbing stairs instead of hiking up a hill.  That makes it easier.

Along the trail I found several wildflowers I had never seen, including Elephant Head Orchids.  I had been wanting to see them for a couple of years, ever since I read about them.  Scratch another one off the bucket list.  I'm knocking things off my bucket list so fast I probably ought to start expanding it.

When we got up to the top, in addition to the thermal features, we saw a chipmunk behaving badly.  I'd never before seen anything like what it was doing.  He seemed unconcerned that we were right there.  We were very close, just observing him.  He'd scurry around, then plow his face in the dust and roll around in it.  He did this for quite awhile.  I had the thought that it might be the chipmunk version of the broken wing dance that cranes do.  Maybe the chipmunk thought, "Hey, if I make these guys think I'm crazy, maybe they'll go away."  Whatever the case, after awhile he picked up and ran off.

Elephant Head Orchids

A whole bunch of them

One of the pools in the basin.  Don't know if it's orange because of iron or because of bacteria.  Could be either

Another feature.  The cratering suggests to me that this is more of a geyser than a hot spring.  I could be wrong, it's happened before.

The view from the top of the hill

Tres hombres 

Mini mud volcano

Another one.  I imagine in the spring, it's pretty active.  The runoff water is gone so this is just a vent now

Trees don't survive the changing heat in the ground from the thermal areas.  It shifts around quite a bit and trees that have been there for a hundred years suddenly die.  The wind does the rest.

Here is the chipmunk.  I will call him Chancho

Chancho looking one way

Chancho looking the other way

Chancho plunging his head in the dust

Chancho looking to see if we're still here

Chancho plowing a furrow in the dust

Chancho is one weird chipmunk.  He r u n n o f t after this pic was taken

This pool kind of looks like a giant's footprint to me.  Okay a giant with lumbago

Mud bubble bursting

More mud bubbles

Cool mud bubble, mid-burst

Looks inviting if you've ever had a mudbath.  I wouldn't recommend it here.  Not only is it too hot but it's also a Federal offense.  Best to let the spas do that for you.

Wet pool with mud cracks around the edges.  I believe in another week or two this will be a mudpot as well

Here's a silky blue pool, reminds me of the porcelain basin in Norris

Here's it's little brother

I'm still trying to identify this one

Another pool

Another mudcrack framed pool

Another dead tree

Stop #3:  Sheepeater Cliff
Those of you who read this blog may think, "What? Not another picture of the kids climbing Sheepeater Cliff?"  Sheepeater Cliff is one of our very favorite places in the park.  The kids never tire of it, neither do we.  There are several routes we use to climb up to the top.  It's a very easy climb and the view is rewarding. This was my oldest son's first time in Yellowstone for two years so we decided to hit Sheepeater Cliff for him.  Usually, when we get to the top, we turn to the right and follow the cliff to a trail down.  We've used that cliff for years.  For some reason, the two youngest boys turned left instead of right.  I followed them and they found a way down but I kept going.  I saw a feature that was interesting and I decided to find out what was there.  I was rewarded with one of the most stunningly beautiful little hidden areas in the park.  I am certain very few people ever see this.  I hesitate even posting it here for fear it will become overused.

It was a bowl shaped feature with columnar jointed basalt forming the circular wall on three sides.  The floor was almost perfectly flat and covered with soft grasses, wild strawberry plants in bloom and thousands of purple mountain violets.  I can imagine what it would have been like to camp there.  I imagine the Sheepeater Indians, who this feature is named after probably did that.  There is no campsite here though and it would be a shame to disturb the solitude of this little oasis.  I will come back here to meditate some day.

There are some fat chipmunks on the boulder field of Sheepeater Cliff now, they have become emboldened by tourists that feed them or leave scraps where they can be found.  For the record, when we visit Yellowstone we do not feed the animals and we try to leave no trace of our presence when we leave.  We love and respect the park too much to do anything else.

The boys at Sheepeater Cliff

More boys at Sheepeater Cliff

I don't know what this is, first time I've encountered it at least in this form

These boys enjoy Yellowstone

Oregon grapes in bloom

The boys at the edge of the oasis

The new oasis

Need to identify this plant

Sticky geranium

Another plant to identify

The oldest boy on Sheepeater Cliff

Pic for scale

Another view of the oasis

This one for scale

I was there too

This squirrel was not happy we were in his home.  He swore a blue streak at us in squirrel.  I don't speak squirrel but the message was quite clear

Fat emboldened chipmunk at Sheepeater Cliff

Stop #4:  Mammoth Hot Springs
The intent was to go soak in the Boiling River for an hour or so and then drive home, but once again, due to high water levels the feature was closed to the public.  So we had to come up with Plan B.  We walked along the boardwalks at Mammoth Hot Springs for almost an hour before we headed home.

Mammoth was supposed to be the main area of the park.  There is a big stone gate at the North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana.  Mammoth Hot Springs is the headquarters of the park and it is open year round.  Unfortunately for Gardiner, Montana, there is no convenient way to get to that part of Montana.  It's out of the way and basically is a destination town.  West Yellowstone was a much more convenient town and it became the main entrance to the park almost immediately.  I can't say for sure but I believe the entrance at West Yellowstone sees more traffic than the other four entrances put together.

Mammoth Hot Springs was a very awe inspiring place.  Huge mounds of travertine with colored water cascading down it's sides.  Sadly, the earthquake at nearby Hebgen Lake seems to have messed with the plumbing at Mammoth and now it is a shadow of it's former glory.  As you walk along the boardwalks, though you can imagine what it must have looked at by comparing the extinct features with those that are still active.  In it's heyday it must have been majestic.  It's still pretty spectacular even so.

While we were walking the boardwalk one of the boys noticed a killdeer wading in the runoff of the hot springs finding morsels to eat.  Killdeer always remind me of my Dad.  He loved killdeer and always pointed them out to me when he saw them.

Mammoth Hot Springs, I wonder how old these trees are.  They were living before the formation killed them.  The formation took a very long time to be built

Mammoth

Imagine what this would have looked like when it was all wet

Shadow of it's former self

This part is extinct.  Would have been very cool

Liberty Cap.  A dormant geyser (probably extinct)

This hillside is still fluid

Long dead

Random hole in the ground

Extinct terraces.  There are other parts of the park where these are being made

More extinct terraces

Imagine this with water, bacterial mats and steam

I wish I could have seen this in it's heyday

That mountain of travertine was once all fluid and dynamic

The killdeer

The killdeer.  There were actually several, this on just posed

These terraces are still active

As are these

Now this is a haven for birds

Scale

More active terraces

The view from Mammoth Hot Spring

Killdeer on the terraces

More terraces

Once the whole place looked like this

and this

Little steamy waterfalls everywhere

Terraces

Purple martin

Broken part of the formation being assimilated into the new travertine

Terracing

Bluebird of happiness

Liked this picture

I have not yet identified this plant

Or this one

I don't know what this is called

Things like this are all over the place in Yellowstone

Stop #4.5:  Involuntary stop for road construction
We were stopped for about twenty minutes inbetween Mammoth and Norris for road work.  I got out of the car with the camera and this is what I saw.

Yellow monkeyflower near a hot spring

Larkspur

Slimy stuff in the stream 

The stream

Stop #4.75:  The Tetons
So many of our trips begin or end with the Tetons.  This one ended with them.  As we came down the Ashton Hill, we saw a spectacular sunset on the Teton Range.  There is a pullout about five miles north of Ashton for the purpose of viewing the Tetons.  I pulled over there and got this shot.

Sunset on the Tetons

We got a late start, because we had to wait for boys to get out of band practice, but it was a full day and a fun day.  We got home just before dark and the Cat was waiting for us!  Great day.